Emergency
by Lilianae
Summary: For some reason, no transcript was made of the historical first phone call between Konoha and Suna. Not NaruSaku.


**Title:** Emergency  
**Series:** Naruto  
**Rating:** T, but just barely  
**Warnings:** see 'pairings' below  
**Pairings:** NOT Naruto/Sakura. They have the most 'screen' time, but they're friends here, not a couple. I repeat: THIS ISN'T A NARUSAKU FIC! If you're afraid of ending up reading about a pairing you dislike and want to know which ones are featured before you read this fic, please check at the bottom of the page. I placed that information there because it's kind of a spoiler (for the fic, not the series, lol). If the pairings are not what you're looking for, don't read the fic and move on, please.  
**Setting:** canonverse, futurefic

* * *

Sakura closed her mouth in the middle of a syllable. She and her former teammate stared at the noisy device on his office desk for two whole rings before Naruto picked up the handset like a challenge.

She smirked as he spent another second wondering if he should answer with his name or title, or just plain "hello".

"Uhh… hi?"

Well, he would get the hang of it eventually.

"K-kage stuff!"

Sakura's hand felt a sudden spike of desire to attach itself to her famed forehead. The caller had better be the Kazekage himself if this was Naruto's extent of eloquence. Sure, it was a new method of communication, but it shouldn't be that difficult to sound professional. Whatever he was suddenly so obviously nervous about, Gaara would probably understand.

He sent a panicked glance her way. Oh dear, what now? Should she come to the rescue and handle the conversation for him because answering to what he was up to had already been too scary?

"I-is that right?" he finally said to the phone, and cleared his throat. "Yes, I would much encourage that course of action."

He seemed to be remembering he'd used a radio before and not seeing who you were talking to wasn't _that _much of a novelty. Sakura sighed. Naruto had his moments, but he could be such a blockhead at times.

"Hold that thought… Sakura, here." He shoved at her the form requesting funds for testing the newest medicine she had developed, and impatiently shook it to beg her to take it from him.

She looked at the topmost paper without making a move to touch it. "You didn't sign it yet."

Naruto grabbed the nearest writing utensil and scribbled his name on every line Sakura pointed at with speed that would make most secretaries jealous. The now disheveled pile of red tape was pushed into the hand she barely got out of the way of papercut hazard. He let go before she could grasp every sheet, and two fell to the floor.

"Naruto? Did you even read them? What–"

"I trust you, you're awesome, now go save lives and make science history," he blurted in one long word and drew a hasty breath to speak a few more. "I really gotta take this, sorry, diplomatic emergency, tell them I said you get all the money you want, bye!"

"Naruto?"

He waved his hand frantically to shoo her out, and she shrugged and complied. She heard running steps and a few clicks of a key behind the door right after she had closed it.

She stood in the hallway for a good ten seconds, undecided on whether she should be worried, amused, or mad at herself for not getting something obvious. Eventually she decided she would ask Naruto about it later, and for now trust he could handle whatever he had probably exaggerated to be an emergency.

Gaara was his close friend, so he would hardly make the first use of the long-expected Konoha-Suna phone line be a declaration of war. And if Suna was in trouble, Naruto would have summoned a team to send to help them already.

She straightened the funding application, wondering if anyone would even find it odd anymore that the Hokage signed paperwork with an orange highlighter. She would hold him to that promise of 'all the money you want'.

--

--

"Yeah, what is it?"

"You too? Is that how the Kazekage's second-in-command answers the phone?"

Kankuro snorted at the other end of the line. "I don't know, Haruno. Apparently yes, since this is my first time answering the damn thing."

"Well, it's past office hours, so you're excused," she replied, letting the smile he couldn't see sound in her voice. "Is everything okay over there?"

"Uh… yeah… Why, is there something I should know about?"

She had to laugh, she had thought as much. "Never mind, just Naruto being weird. He was pretty shaken to get a call from Gaara earlier today. I guess he's still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that our villages can communicate in real time."

"Oh, he was on the phone with Naruto, then? That does… explain a few things."

"Yeah, around two o'clock. I was going to ask him about it but I haven't seen him since, so I thought I'd call there myself to be sure there's nothing to worry about."

"And you want to know if I heard anything." Now she could hear his smile, closer to a smirk.

"Can you blame me? He practically threw me out," she conceded, and gave another laugh. "I know it's probably 'kage stuff' as Naruto puts it, but I'm curious. So did you?"

"Just the first sentence."

"Oh well, worth a try."

"Then he seemed to notice the door was ajar, and sealed it with sand so tight you wouldn't hear a thing whether it's talking, yelling or practicing yodeling he did on the other side. His secretary says he didn't let anyone in for hours."

"Really? You know, Naruto was quick to lock the door, too, and he never does that in the office. What did he say then?"

Kankuro chuckled knowingly, and she knew she had missed something obvious. Probably for a while, now.

"Just to make sure, I'm quoting him next, not saying this to you from me. Though of course, you can answer, too, if you like."

"We'll see about that. Shoot."

Kankuro took a purposeful pause.

"'What are you wearing?'"

.

.

.

* * *

**Pairings:** Naruto/Gaara, with some Kankuro/Sakura flirting.  
**Warning:** Yaoi (and het, too)  
I wish this _was_ a spoiler for the series.


End file.
